Seven long-term priorities of the Wichita City Council

From a new library to a long-awaited interchange on East Kellogg, Wichita city officials are planning clear to 2024.

“We have a group that really does appreciate the environment where we can put into place some long-range planning, which we will continue to focus on,” said Mayor Jeff Longwell.

“At the same time, we want flexibility. ... When opportunities like the (Wichita State) innovation campus present themselves, we need to be ready to be there and partner with them.”

City Council and city staff members are planning for future projects as part of the city’s proposed capital improvement plan.

But putting together plans for long-range funding doesn’t always mean the city will allocate the money, Longwell said.

“Just because we’re planning for X doesn’t mean we’ll be funding X,” he said.

Although finding a new water supply to plan for future drought is a city priority, it’s not included in this list. The public works staff is looking at options and will make recommendations to the council, potentially by the end of the year.

Here’s a look at some of the bigger priorities over the next 10 years.

1. Transit

Wichita’s transit system continues to struggle, and budgeting for the system, which loses money year after year, is going to be a big challenge, Longwell said.

In order to balance the budget by August, City Manager Robert Layton said he would have to cut $2 million from transit’s budget. To avoid that, the city would either have to cut services or find money from other areas to cover that cost for years to come.

“Transit must have a long-term fix in play, and the immediate fix is dependent on where we get long-term funding from,” Longwell said. “No one wants to throw away money into transit. A temporary fix could be a downsize and not necessarily more funding.”

As part of the capital improvement plan, the city estimates $9.4 million will be needed to replace the bus fleet, with about $7.9 million of that coming from federal funds.

2. Public safety

The proposed plan calls for putting $67 million toward public safety, including firetrucks, equipment, police substations and a new training facility.

New substations to replace the ones on the east and west sides have been budgeted, Longwell said.

There now are four bureaus. City officials have had preliminary talks about starting a fifth bureau, Longwell said, but that is not yet in the budget.

A new law enforcement training center is in the plans for next year at $13 million; a site has not been selected.

3. Freeways

Wildcat/Dondlinger was selected last week as the winning bid for a five-year, $255 million project to complete Kellogg to K-96 and the Kansas Turnpike, and interchanges at Webb and Greenwich.

“We are moving forward aggressively” on the project, Layton said.

Longwell said the bid came in under projections. It was originally two separate projects that were slated to take nine years to complete instead of five.

4. New library

Architectural plans for a new library, which city officials are calling an advanced learning center, are underway by GLMV Architecture.

“I’m very supportive of what we’re doing there,” Longwell said. “The only hesitation I have is in calling it a library – it’s so dramatically different than the library of the past.”

The library is slated to cost about $30 million, with the city paying about $27.5 million. The rest would be up to the library foundation, which hopes that about $2.5 million would go toward technology in the building.

The City Council probably will vote on finalizing documents to put the project out to bid by the end of the year, Longwell said.

If it passes, construction could potentially begin next spring at Second and McLean. The current central library at 223 S. Main was built in 1967.

Initially, library officials looked at renovating that building for a cost of nearly $22 million. If a new library building is constructed, the old library building could be used as an extension for spill-over conventions, banquets and other events from Century II, city officials said.

The latest plans call for the new building to increase the square footage of the library from 89,000 to 95,000, including meeting rooms that could function independently or together, with seating for up to 300 people.

Technology could include about 110 public computers – the current library has 31 – and additional space for people to bring and charge their own devices.

5. Downtown, economic development

About $41 million is planned to improve infrastructure such as streets, sidewalks and lights downtown.

▪ Second, Main to Washington, 2016-17, $5.4 million

▪ Commerce Arts District, 2015, $1.9 million

▪ Commerce, Waterman-Kellogg, 2018, $1.9 million

▪ Comprehensive way finding, 2019-20, $1.5 million

▪ Douglas, Main to Washington, 2020-21, $7 million

▪ Douglas, Washington to Grove, 2020-22, $10.2 million

▪ Downtown streetscaping, 2023-24, $7 million

▪ Mosley/Rock Island, Second to Third, 2015, $1.5 million

▪ Mosley/Rock Island, Third to Central, 2022, $1.5 million

▪ Old Town improvements, 2016, $500,000

▪ St. Francis, Waterman to Kellogg, 2019, $2.2 million

Several infrastructure projects for economic development outside of downtown are on the table, including $3.5 million for water and sewer main projects at the WSU innovation campus, which were recently approved by the council.

The city has also been asked to pay about $10 million to expand the roads around the proposed innovation campus, specifically on 17th Street from Hillside to Oliver and on Oliver from 17th to 21st, in addition to the 21st and Oliver intersection.

On the west side, the city plans a series of improvements to the West Street corridor, from Kellogg to 47th Street South. Those improvements – totaling $31.5 million and done as three separate projects – would expand and rebuild the street to make it suitable for truck traffic, said Mark Manning of the city finance department.

6. Bike path improvements

The council has made improving bike paths a priority and approved a bicycle master plan in 2013.

The current CIP includes a top trail priority at Redbud Bike Path from Woodlawn to K-96, in addition to several other projects throughout the city, totaling $11.8 million.

7. Park projects

About $50 million has been proposed for parks: $20.7 million for existing parks, $18 million for aquatics and $11.3 million for new parks, according to CIP documents.

The projects include rehabilitation of playgrounds, walking paths, athletic courts, ice center improvements, Central and Bristol Park, Crystal Prairie Park, McAdams Fields, Pracht Wetlands and O.J. Watson Park.

If approved by City Council members, Wichita’s Park and Recreation Department would have $18 million to use for aquatic-related capital improvements from 2017 to 2019.

To help determine how to use those funds, park and recreation officials are asking for public input.

The city has several options: repair and upgrade the current pools, replace pools with splash pads, close pools, open a central indoor pool or some combination of those.

This story was originally published June 17, 2015 at 7:30 AM with the headline "Seven long-term priorities of the Wichita City Council."